Race Statistics
March 26, 2011
JESSE POWELL writes:
As you probably know, the 2010 Census numbers on the racial composition of the United States have been released. I would lke to present them with slight changes to the government system of classification. The Census results are organized according to “ethnic heritage;” meaning Hispanic or Non-Hispanic; and race divided into six different categories: White, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and Some Other Race. In addition, a person may be a combination of races or multi-racial. It should be kept in mind, though, that Hispanic is not a race according to the 2010 Census.
In my presentation of racial categories, however, I wish to divide the United States population into eight different and mutually exclusive “racial” categories: White, Hispanic, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Some Other Race, and Multi-Racial; I will refer to these “racial” categories as White, Hispanic, Black, AIAN, Asian, NHPI, SOR, and MR. In this system, all Hispanics who are only one race are considered Hispanic; Hispanics who are Multi-Racial are counted as being Multi-Racial. A person is only included in a particular racial category if they are that race exclusively; all people of two or more races are counted as being “Multi-Racial.” I will add, almost all people who are counted as being “Some Other Race” according to the 2010 Census are Hispanic; when I say that someone is “Some Other Race,” I am specifically excluding Hispanics from this classification. Therefore, according to the Census, 6.2 percent of the population is “Some Other Race;” according to my system of racial classification only 0.2 percent of the population is “Some Other Race.”
So, below are the eight racial categories (according to my classification system) given by the 2010 Census for the United States (which includes all 50 states and the District of Columbia but excludes Puerto Rico):
Abbreviations: AIAN (American Indian and Alaskan Native), NHPI (Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander), SOR (Some Other Race), MR (Multi-Racial)
2010 Census Results for the United States
| Total | 308,745,538 | 100.0% |
| White | 196,817,552 | 63.7% |
| Hispanic | 47,435,002 | 15.4% |
| Black | 37,685,848 | 12.2% |
| AIAN | 2,247,098 | 0.7% |
| Asian | 14,465,124 | 4.7% |
| NHPI | 481,576 | 0.2% |
| SOR | 604,265 | 0.2% |
| MR | 9,009,073 | 2.9% |
Next, I want to look at the racial composition of several states (and the District of Columbia). According to the Census, 63.7 percent of the total population was non-Hispanic white and 36.3 percent was non-white (this compares to the 2000 Census when 69.1 percent was non-Hispanic white and 30.9 percent was non-white). In 2010, 4 states (California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Texas) and the District of Columbia had minority populations of greater than 50 percent. These four states and D.C. make up 21.5 percent of America’s population. In 2010, eight states had non-white populations of from 40 percent to 50 percent (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York), making up 24.1 percent of America’s population. Looking at states with low non-white populations, four states had minority populations of less than 10 percent (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and West Virginia) with 1.7 percent of America’s population.
Below are three tables in which the racial breakdown of the states I mention above (and the District of Columbia) are given in detail. I am using the racial classification system I describe above; every individual is placed into one of eight mutually exclusive racial categories.
States with non-white populations greater than 50% (and the District of Columbia)
|
|
White |
Hispanic |
Black |
AIAN |
Asian |
NHPI |
SOR |
MR |
| California | 40.1% | 35.3% | 5.8% | 0.4% | 12.8% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 4.9% |
| D.C. | 34.8% | 8.3% | 50.0% | 0.2% | 3.5% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 2.9% |
| Hawaii | 22.7% | 4.7% | 1.5% | 0.2% | 37.7% | 9.4% | 0.1% | 23.6% |
| New Mexico | 40.5% | 44.0% | 1.7% | 8.5% | 1.3% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 3.7% |
| Texas | 45.3% | 36.2% | 11.5% | 0.3% | 3.8% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 2.7% |
States with non-white populations from 40% to 50%
|
White |
Hispanic |
Black |
AIAN |
Asian |
NHPI |
SOR |
MR |
|
| Arizona | 57.8% | 28.0% | 3.7% | 4.0% | 2.7% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 3.4% |
| Florida | 57.9% | 21.5% | 15.2% | 0.3% | 2.4% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 2.5% |
| Georgia | 55.9% | 8.2% | 30.0% | 0.2% | 3.2% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 2.1% |
| Maryland | 54.7% | 7.5% | 29.0% | 0.2% | 5.5% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 2.9% |
| Mississippi | 58.0% | 2.5% | 36.9% | 0.5% | 0.9% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1.1% |
| Nevada | 54.1% | 24.8% | 7.7% | 0.9% | 7.1% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 4.7% |
| New Jersey | 59.3% | 16.5% | 12.8% | 0.1% | 8.2% | 0.0% | 0.3% | 2.7% |
| New York | 58.3% | 16.3% | 14.4% | 0.3% | 7.3% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 3.0% |
States with non-white populations under 10%
|
White |
Hispanic |
Black |
AIAN |
Asian |
NHPI |
SOR |
MR |
|
| Maine | 94.4% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1.6% |
| New Hampshire | 92.3% | 2.5% | 1.0% | 0.2% | 2.1% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1.6% |
| Vermont | 94.3% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 0.3% | 1.3% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1.7% |
| West Virginia | 93.2% | 1.1% | 3.4% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 1.5% |
Excluding Alaska and Hawaii, the state with the highest white population is Maine (94.4 percent); with the highest Hispanic population, New Mexico (44.0 percent); with the highest black population, Mississippi (36.9 percent); with the highest American Indian and Alaskan native population, South Dakota (8.5 percent); the state with the highest Asian population is California (12.8 percent); with the highest Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population, Utah (0.9 percent); with the highest “Some Other Race” population, Massachusetts (0.9 percent); and with the highest multi-racial population, Oklahoma (5.9 percent).
Hawaii has by far the biggest multi-racial population at 23.6 percent; Hawaii’s largest racial group is Asian (37.7 percent) and whites are 22.7 percent of the population. The three biggest categories added together (Asian, multi-racial, and white) add up to 84.0 percent of the population. Hawaii’s native population is 9.4 percent of the total.
Sources:
Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010
— Comments —
James P. writes:
Also worth noting:
The number of electoral votes of the majority non-white states: 105
The number of electoral votes of the 40-50% non-white states: 121
For now, at any rate, of the above states, 120 votes are reliably Democrat (CA, DC, HI, NM, MD, NJ, NY) and 60 votes are reliably Republican (TX, GA, MI).
Things look pretty grim for the Republicans if Texas shifts into the “reliably Democrat” column — and that seems inevitable in the next decade or two. Recall in this context that California used to be reliably Republican, until its demographic character changed.
